Vice President, Environmental Solutions Inc.

Former Director of Pollution Prevention and Compliance Assistance,
Department of Environmental Quality

 

In his nearly 20 years with Virginia government and beyond, Harry Gregori has always been a leader for change. He helped develop the regulations to manage the location and siting of hazardous waste management facilities in Virginia. He played a key role in forming Virginia’s solid waste recycling legislation. He was one of the principal architects of the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program. And along with the late Dr. Vladimir “Walt” Gulevich of DEQ, he helped move landfill operations to stronger levels of operation to protect public health and the environment.

 

Through the years, Gregori saw “a dramatic shift in the regulatory structure for the management of solid waste that involved the very specific standards associated with landfill construction. That shifted how local governments and businesses operated landfills,” he says. “It had a tremendous impact—particularly on local governments—on how they were able to deal with the problem of managing solid waste.

 

“At the same time, we initiated a major program related to mandatory recycling, and that was a significant change in how local governments and businesses reacted, in terms of offering opportunities for citizens to recycle.

 

“Another dramatic shift was the focus on pollution prevention, which began between 1985 and ’88. We started looking particularly at hazardous waste—that was the major focus—to try to find substitutes for hazardous chemicals so we would reduce the production of hazardous waste. And this was embraced by industry—in fact, industry provided the leadership, really, in that area. That program had a significant impact on reducing hazardous chemicals.

“But probably the most significant change, which actually occurred in the later part of the ’90s, was when the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program really took off. Virginia was recognizing the efforts of business, industry, government and the military to undertake innovative programs that reduce the impacts on the environment.

 

“We also saw a major change in Virginia’s philosophy in how we look at the results of our regulatory programs. We look at an outcome-based program, rather than only what government requires. In other words, it’s better to have programs that have a positive impact on the environment than to simply say ‘we issued so many permits’ or ‘we did so many inspections.’ The regulatory programs were critical to establishing the base, and without the regulatory programs we would not have had the improve-ments in the environment that we see today. But the pure numbers of [regulatory actions] don’t necessarily lead you to the outcome.”

 

Gregori sees a number of challenges that will need to be overcome to continue environmental progress. “We need to be thinking at the sustain-ability level, and people need to go through a learning process of understanding that economics and society are connected. We know it on some levels, but we don’t really, really understand. And particularly when we look at legislation; many times, legislation is looked at as ‘oh, this is an environmental bill’ —and the reality is that while it is about the environment, it’s also about economics.

 

“The positive part is, Virginia has the capacity to make those changes. We don’t have a lot of time, and we need to make changes faster. Where are we going to be 50 years from now, that is a key issue.”